Hardware eMMC reader capable of reading Nintendo Switch raw partitions including boot0, boot1 with rtsx Linux driver.
eMMC chips wear out, and recovery can be tricky.
Luckily, the Nintendo Switch (except Lite) has a removable eMMC board.
It is encrypted, but still readable and writable as raw partitions.
When the eMMC fails it often becomes read-only or worse - corrupt.
I have recovered a couple broken Nintendo this way, it might help you too!
Almost any SD card reader can read eMMC chips. However they only access the main partitions.
After discovering a Realtek card reader with rtsx Linux driver in an old laptop,
I could read the boot0 and boot1 partitions too.
It is fully open-source reader based on Realtek RTS5170 card reader and designed in KiCad.
Uses the same Molex 500913-0302 connector.
Requires Linux and rtsx drivers to be installed.
Works out of the box with Ubuntu 20.04.1
How to build the required drivers for Raspberry Pi 4 is here.
Read and write speed is about 20MB/s. (USB 2.0)
sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0boot0 of=boot0.bin
sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0boot1 of=boot1.bin
sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=rawnand.bin
sudo su
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0/force_ro
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot0/force_ro
echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot1/force_ro
exit
I made a small batch and they are available on Tindie.
https://www.tindie.com/products/22851/
Or feel free to assemble one yourself.
It does not decrypt your files or enable piracy of any kind.
It is created to make recovery possible.
In full support of the right to repair movement.